Elevators lead to a lawsuit

Published 7:14 pm, Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Kinetic Concepts Inc., a medical device maker, alleges elevator malfunctions in the KCI Tower have disrupted its business operations.

Kinetic Concepts Inc., a medical device maker, alleges elevator malfunctions in the KCI Tower have disrupted its business operations.

Photo: LISA KRANTZ, SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

Elevators lead to a lawsuit

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Taking the elevators in the 14-story KCI Tower has been a harrowing experience for some Kinetic Concepts Inc. employees, the company charges in a lawsuit filed this month.

Eleven employees were trapped in an elevator for more than 40 minutes two months ago, prompting a call to the Fire Department to free them.

On another occasion last summer, several employees were in an elevator when it suddenly zoomed upward before coming to a jolting stop. KCI's President and CEO Catherine Burzik got stuck for a few minutes the same day.

KCI outlines the incidents, along with an array of other elevator-related glitches, in its breach-of-lease suit against the building's multiple owners and property manager. The medical-device maker, one of San Antonio's largest public companies, alleges the elevator malfunctions have disrupted its business operations.

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The tower's four elevators, along with a service elevator and two garage elevators, passed their annual inspection Aug. 6, according to a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. No complaints have been filed, she added.

KCI, the 165,000-square-foot building's anchor tenant and its one-time owner, has leased about 140,000 square feet from the first to the 15th floor for its corporate headquarters. The building, at 8023 Vantage Drive, doesn't have a 13th floor.

Late last year, however, KCI vacated the 11th, 12th and 15th floors — about a fifth of its space in the building — because of the problems, company spokesman Joe Izbrand said. The company also plans to vacate space on 14th floor.

The building has housed “several hundred” KCI employees, but about 30 percent were relocated to other KCI buildings, he said.

Gruebbel declined to comment on KCI's vacating space.

Another KCI Tower tenant, developer Marty Wender, said he's never had any problems with the elevators because he takes the stairs to his second-floor suite.

“It's not for health reasons,” Wender said. “It's just faster.”

KCI, in its lawsuit, cited an array of issues with the elevators since 2008. They include “abrupt ‘jerking' movements,” stopping on all floors or going to floors not requested, doors either closing rapidly or slowly, and the elevators stopping “off level” with the nearest floor.

No employees have been hurt in any of the incidents it cites, Izbrand said, but “we have had some minor incidents of employees suffering some anxiety.”

A Fire Department spokeswoman confirmed it provided medical attention to one person after the 11 KCI employees were stuck in an elevator Nov. 15.

“Not surprisingly, many KCI employees are now afraid to get into an elevator at KCI Tower,” the company claims in its suit. CEO Burzik, however, continues to use the elevator to get to her office, Izbrand said.

Efforts to resolve the complaints have failed, leading to “lost productivity, lost profits and disruption” to its business, KCI charged in the suit.

KCI trimmed its rent payments this month and last to reflect that it's no longer occupying some of the space, a step it says it's entitled to do under the lease terms. It wants a Bexar County District Court judge to rule it can continue to abate rent payments until the alleged elevator problems are repaired. KCI's rent was $4.7 million in 2009.

The firm wants a temporary restraining order as a pre-emptive move to prevent the building owners or property manager from denying it access to its offices. KCI also wants to collect unspecified financial damages, including for lost profits and business-interruption expenses.